+++ /dev/null
-The story continues in [[April2008Blog]].
-
-== May 2007 ==
-
-=== Thu, 31th ===
-
-==== News Feed ====
-
-Today Rasky suggested that we could use an RSS feed to notify
-about new articles in the blog.
-
-I wanted to fulfill the same purpose, but with a totally
-different approach: use git-send-email to notify a mailing-list
-and tell people: "hey, just subscribe to the list!".
-
-My version is surely too complicated because it employs
-a chain of 4 different programs (pikiwiki -> git -> git-mail -> mailman).
-But I like that it can be done without even touching the wiki
-engine.
-
-A middle-ground solution could be using gitweb's own
-RSS feed:
-
- http://bender.codewiz.org/wikigit/wiki.git?a=rss
-
-But as Rasky notes, this would send notifications
-also for minor edits: real blog apps would only
-bother you for new articles.
-
-So, maybe we should filter only changesets that
-contain a new level 3 header... Hmmm... This
-can't be done with gitweb, I'm afraid.
-
-We live in an era where we can make very cool
-things with very little effort. I could hack
-this versioned wiki engine in just 2-3 days
-because I could pick the existing PikiPiki and
-combine it with the existing Git versioning
-system.
-
-This brings me to the point: the really hard thing
-in software design is choosing the right ingredients
-for your sausage. Because there are many ways to
-bake a pizza, but only a few of them have the
-quality of being tasty, healty, dietetic, cheap
-or whatever. And usually, even a good design...
-err... receipe requires you to choose a few of
-these qualities you care more.
-
-'''Q''': What do you think is the most elegant way to
-obtain useful notification from this blog?
-
-You can choose whatever technology to deliver some
-kind of "notification". You can also use any
-sensible definition of the words "useful" and "elegant".
-
-
-==== Hop hop! ====
-
-Today I typed ##cvs up -dP## to update Gnash from CVS.
-And I got the prompt back in less than 1s.
-
-"Something must be broken!", I thought! In fact, it's
-blazingly fast because we're just 2ms away from Savannah:
-
-{{{
-PING cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69) 56(84) bytes of data.
-64 bytes from cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69): icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=2.31 ms
-64 bytes from cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69): icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=2.21 ms
-64 bytes from cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69): icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=2.00 ms
-}}}
-
-And it's not even in MIT:
-
-{{{
-traceroute to cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
- 1 passport-9-16.media.mit.edu (18.85.46.1) 1.756 ms 1.695 ms 1.845 ms
- 2 amtgw.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.1) 2.230 ms 1.248 ms 1.150 ms
- 3 EXTERNAL-RTR-1-BACKBONE.MIT.EDU (18.168.0.18) 1.409 ms 1.435 ms 1.374 ms
- 4 EXTERNAL-RTR-2-BACKBONE.MIT.EDU (18.168.0.27) 1.391 ms 1.389 ms 1.426 ms
- 5 207.210.143.109 (207.210.143.109) 1.428 ms 1.505 ms 1.414 ms
- 6 207.210.143.138 (207.210.143.138) 12.756 ms 2.162 ms 1.998 ms
- 7 ge-2-1-0-000.ar1.qcy1.ma.gnaps.NET (199.232.44.142) 4.879 ms 2.592 ms 2.485 ms
- 8 cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69) 2.713 ms 7.476 ms 13.328 ms
-}}}
-
-Boston sure has a very fast WAN backbone!
-
-
-=== Wed, 30th ===
-
- Ciao Berni!!! Te tu sei un grande, qui dalla OTE ti si saluta con affetto!!!
-
-Grazie ragazzi! Il sentimento e' reciproco! Uno di questi giorni
-dovete proprio venire a bere una birra qua a Boston!
-
-==== More Graphics Headaches ====
-
-Hehe, more graphics problems keep sprinkling: XorgGraphicsCorruption.
-CosmicPenguin was kind enough to offload me of the graphics related bugs.
-
-
-=== Tue, 29th ===
-
-==== Tracking ====
-
-And if you really have too much time on your hands, try helping me out on some of
-these tasks:
-
- * XorgOlpcTasks
- * http://dev.laptop.org/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=reopened&status=closed&owner=bernie&order=priority
-
-
-==== Weekly OLPC Reports ====
-
-If you're interested in our progess at the OLPC lab, we
-publish weekly executive summaries here:
-
- http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news
-
-This is the report that mentions me volunteering for
-the project:
-
- http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/6709ac0696003ee3852572e00083567f?OpenDocument
-
-
-=== Fri, 25th ===
-
-==== 60 Minutes ====
-
-In this episode of the popular American show SixtyMinutes,
-our founder NicholasNegroponte reveals a lot of details
-about the humanitarian role of the OneLaptopPerChild project:
-
- http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/60_minutes_2007-05-20.avi
-
-The part about us starts approximately at 1/3 of the show.
-
-You may also find the last part interesting as it specifically
-addresses the controversial problem of private medical centers
-trying to save on assistance to homeless people. Marco, you
-should see it!
-
-
-==== GreenishBitmaps ====
-
-'''Warning''': This article is rated PG0xF00F, parents discretion *not* advised.
-
-I've been struggling for the last few days on a the damn X server.
-
-In the RedHat builds, we're still using a pre-release of 1.2,
-labelled 1.1.99. Now, we need to leverage some upstream work
-for input rotation that is landing on the Xorg tree right now.
-
-Backporting is not an option, and we want to stay up to date
-anyway. We'll soon be moving to Fedora 7 anyway. But even
-the just-released 1.3 that will be in Fedora 7 is not enough,
-because it has been branched some time ago, we must work
-from the tip of the git tree, which of course has become
-very unstable recently.
-
-I've been fighting all the week against all sort of bugs
-and build problems and, believe me, it's a very energy
-consuming exercise.
-
-The funniest thing I'm still trying to track are
-these GreenishBitmaps that nobody else except me
-is seeing.
-
-It's probably a miscompilation of some kind, but I've
-long ago ran out of obvious and less obvious ideas to try
-and I'm now far in the land of impossible things.
-
-All this time I've been in contact with a few X
-hackers on IRC, including the author of the AMD
-driver, but even them couldn't come up with a
-magical solution.
-
-
-==== Chat Line ====
-
- Bernie, I'm Easy...
-
-'''Bernie''': Hello Easy!!! It's good to be chatting here in the blog!
-
-I saw this two photo some row below...
-
- But all those OLPC at the roof, what doing?? Only for furnishing or for specific utility?? :)
-
-'''Bernie''': Hehe... they're part of the WirelessMesh, for testing
-purposes. An hispanic guy called Miguel (not the same of De Icaza)
-sometimes fiddles with them. He's lucky because he's very tall.
-I'd need a ladder :-)
-
- The office is very beautiful and the Apple Cinema Display is really very big...
-
-'''Bernie''': Yeah, that's the personal screen of my boss/team-leader ChrisBall.
-It's 30". One day or another I'll bring here my 24" wide-screen from home.
-
- Do you have some new news about your new work??
-
-'''Bernie''': Sorry for not updating the blog... I've been *extremely*
-busy. I will do it shortly... Promised.
-
-=== Sat, 19th ===
-
-==== Trip to work ====
-
-I still couldn't solve the problem of getting to work
-quickly. I can't afford to waste over 2 hours every
-day like this.
-
-By now, I've tried any possible solution:
-
- * Car: the office doesn't have a parking lot and there's
- no way to park within one mile from KendalSquare for less
- than $18/day. Monthly fees start from $250.
-
- * Bus: I need to commute in Dudley and take line no. 1 to
- MassachusettsAvenue, then walk 15 minutes to KendalSquare.
-
- * Bus + subway combo: The red line would get me directly
- to KendalSquare, and there are several routes to get there,
- but all of them require commuting at least twice. The
- monthly link pass costs $75.
-
- * Car + subway combo: there are some cheap parkings next
- to the terminal subway stations where you can leave your
- car for $5/day. Unfortunately, to get there I must
- travel in the opposite direction. And the whole thing
- will cost $75 + $5*30, about the same of the monthly
- parking fee.
-
- * Taxi: Costs $11-$14 * 2 every day, which makes the
- monthly parking cheap in comparison.
-
-And even worse, the red line stops running at midnight
-and bus no 1 at 1AM. Which forces me to leave from
-the office very early (for my standards).
-
-If you want to play with the possibilities, I just
-discovered that the transportation company has a very cool
-web service that would have saved me a lot of time:
-
-{{{
- http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/trip_planner/default.asp
- From: 66 Maywood st., Roxbury MA
- To: Kendall/mit Station, Cambridge
-}}}
-
-At the end of the day, the ultimate solution is moving
-closer to the office or at least close to the red line.
-Maybe I could afford to spend $600 for a room, but I
-don't feel like moving right now. I already have enough
-things on my hands.
-
-''Have you considered to put a bicycle in your combo? You may replace a 10 km walk with it and open up new combinations (and ways to get wet...) -- PiroPiro''
-
-==== Awful Weather ====
-
-Today it's raining lightly. Yesterday I took an extra shower
-in the evening :-(
-
-The WikiPedia was definitely right: weather in Boston can
-change very rapidly. Must remember to buy a raincoat like
-RichardStallman's and keep it in my backpack.
-
-
-==== What Next? ====
-
-{{{
-1. Get employed at OLPC
-2. ???
-3. World domination!
-}}}
-
-Just joking, but the truth is that I still need
-to face a lot of new challenges now.
-
-My next problem will be improving my communication skills.
-After one month of full immersion, I can still barely
-understand people talking quickly to each and I clearly
-express myself using an inadequately poor vocabulary and
-too slowly in some cases.
-
-These things will improve over time, while my strong
-Italian inflection is likely to remain forever. If
-only I could find one, I'd attend to a course to
-correct my diction now. Actors do them.
-
-Another crucial problem I need to solve quickly is
-getting a visa that allows me to work here permanently.
-There are many possibilities, but none guaranteed to
-succeed. For now, I'm not thinking about it: my
-employer knows better than me and will help as much
-as possible.
-
-Last but not least, my job is not easy and requires a
-good amount of commitment. All my colleagues are extremely
-smart and more experienced than I am. So I need to work
-twice as hard to keep up with them.
-
-A very nice workplace and very interesting assignments helps.
-And, most importantly, I know that what we're doing here is
-going to have a huge impact on the world.
-
-'''Andrea Grandi''': Your words give me no hopes for my future :(
-
-'''Bernie''': Are you planning to come here? Cool! :D
-
-> All my colleagues are extremely smart and more experienced than I am
-
-More than you? It's not a place for me then :D
-
-'''Bernie''': It's worth trying even if you currently think you're
-not up to the job. It's a very valuable experience even if you
-end up returning to your home country for some reason.
-
-'''Rasky''': But can you get a perm visa even without an university
-degree? I thought that was absolutely out of question... I knew that
-people without a degree could just get some 1-year temp visa.
-
-
-=== Thu, 17th ===
-
-==== More Pics ====
-
-Here are some more pics of MyOlpcDesk.
-
-=== Wed, 16th ===
-
-==== Office Space =====
-
-Here are a few pictures of the OlpcOffice!
-
-==== Hack Hack Hack ====
-
-I've been assigned a problem with an invalid serial port baud
-rate after resume from software suspend.
-
-I started investigating the hard way, until ChrisBall pointed
-me on IRC to talk with the KernelHacker DavidWoodhouse, who
-obviously had a solution in a few seconds. Unfortunately,
-it didn't work as we expected and MitchBradley of OpenFirmware
-joined the conversation to help.
-
-Having all the subsystem gurus available to fix your bugs makes
-things a lot easier... Hehe, I think I like it ;-)
-
-And so tomorrow I'll get back to work on a MandelBug with the Xorg's
-driver for the AMD chipset. When XVIDEO is enabled and you
-rotate the display with XRANDR, sometimes the X server crashes,
-sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it survives with a corrupted
-display. And the bad news is that gdb also hangs.
-
-How will I fix this? Easy: I'll go looking for the driver authors
-first thing tomorrow and beg them to send me a fix :-)
-
-By the way, lately I've been hanging regularly in #olpc on FreeNode.
-My nick is _bernie. Come over to see what's going on!
-
-
-=== Mon, 14th ===
-
-==== All Night Long ====
-
-At 9PM, I'm still here and plan to stay as long as I can :-)
-
-<please link to the song "All Night Long" here>
-
-
-==== Buried In Work Already ====
-
-'''WARNING''': Technical AbraCadabra ahead!
-
-Today I met most of the team members and bothered a few of them,
-starting from DanWilliams who helped me debug a problem with a
-simple mesh networking scenario involving three laptops.
-
-Today I've also been assigned some work from ChrisBall, who also
-helped me out with many small things such as a dead battery,
-accessing the serial console, etc. I'm currently adding a
-KernelDebugger command to display the ModelSpecificRegister's
-of the AmdGeodeCpu.
-
-But it seems like I will also refer to RedHat's ChrisBlizzard
-to be assigned more work. We talked about optimizing the
-video driver for the AmdGeodeCpu, getting the resistive
-tablet to work and maybe adding "tapping" support to the
-capacitive touchpad.
-
-As you know, I like it even more when I'm allowed to ramble
-through a zillion different things like this!
-
-
-==== Sneaky Preview ====
-
-I'm writing this from within the OLPC headquarters. I came today for
-a second interview and to get a few tasks assigned to me :-)
-
-I have no time to be more specific. Will tell you the details a little later.
-
-
-=== Sun, 13th ===
-
- '''TODO''': will tell you later
-
-=== Sat, 12th ===
-
- '''TODO''': will tell you later
-
-=== Fri, 11th ===
- >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking control here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
-==== Quite a Trip ====
-
-Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
-never been before.
-
-The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
-PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
-push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
-
-I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
-much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
-$10.
-
-Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
-them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
-Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
-BrainDump.
-
-
-=== Thu, 10th ===
-
- '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
-
- '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
- sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
-
-==== Car Rental ====
-
-Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
-of before.
-
-http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
-
-I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
-Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
-of driving a car here in the States.
-
-Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
-subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
-of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
-where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
-
-Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
-in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
-It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
-is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
-
-And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
-quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
-
-Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
-I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
-
-
-==== Business Visa? ====
-
-Today I've re-read detailed information on the
-available US visa options:
-
- http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html
-
-Looks like a ''B-1'' Business Visa would do. To get one,
-I should go to a US ambassy, and ambassys are usually
-located abroad. Instead of returning to Italy, maybe
-I could get an appointment in MontrealCity, which is
-near to the border and also an interesting place to see.
-
-
-=== Wed, 9th ===
-
-==== Zip Car ====
-
-Yesterday I applied for this great service: http://www.zipcar.com/ .
-Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
-as versatile.
-
-<rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
-
-Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
-and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
-first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
-I got from Italy suffices.
-
-
-==== Simple shopping ====
-
-Consumers must be very simple minded here. First, most
-shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
-'''Big Deal''', and so on.
-
-''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
-
-Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
-and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
-impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
-exactly where you would expect to see the cents, are
-indeed a small notice: ''EACH''.
-
-Today I bought a dozen of razor blades ($1.50), a
-bottle of shampoo ($1.50) and shower gel ($1.50).
-But I spent $12 for adjusting the two pair of
-trousers I had bought a few days ago in the mall!
-$12 ''EACH'', I mean.
-
-
-==== Bad Neighborhood ====
-
-Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
-
-http://bender.codewiz.org/FunWithWeapons.jpg
-
-Better be careful :-)
-
-
-=== Tue, 8th ===
-
-==== Veni, Vidi, ???? ====
-
-This morning I shown up at OneLaptopPerChild's headquarters. It's again next to KendallSquare,
-in OneCambridgeCenter.
-
-JimGettys was very kind: he took me to LegalSeaFood for lunch, repaired my ExOh's keyboard (two
-keys were dead) and introduced me to the team members.
-
-They left me with the usual Hollywood formula: "don't call us, we'll call you".
-But in this particular case, I felt they were sincere :-)
-
-I hope to be soon a member of the OLPC core team!
-
-
-=== Mon, 7th ===
-
-==== Alea Iacta Est ====
-
-As promised... Yes, indeed. Everybody please cross their fingers.
-
-Babbo:Pregherò perchè tu possa ottenere quello che cerchi.
-
-Camy: Mannaggia a voi due ( Bernie e Alberto ) siete cosi..."teneri". Come ho già detto tante volte a Bernie, è fortunato ad avere un babbo cosi! Lo so, lo so che non c'entra nulla con lo stile di questo blog, ma io sono cosi, impulsiva e Bernie lo sa e mi perdonerà.
-A dire il vero anch'io sto in ansia per lui :-) speriamo bene...
-
-Bernie: Via, non fatemi venire il magone voi due :-)
-
-=== Sun, 6th ===
-
-==== International Dinner ====
-
-FedericoLucifredi and his wife Irena were so kind to invite me at their place for a
-fine dinner with appetizers, SirloinSteak (see pic below), several side
-dishes and... Even a PinotNoir!
-
-http://www.fairburysteaks.com/images/bci-sirloin-round-bone.gif
-
-There were also Mauro -- Federico's colleague at Ximian -- and Irena's
-friend who's a physics professor from Providence and could speak perfect
-French and, surprisingly, even Italian!
-
-What can I say? I think I got a pound or two that night, but it was
-worth it! :-)
-
-
-=== Sat, 5th ===
-
-==== Cinema ====
-
-There's a cinema in building 26 @ EmAiTee, and it's cheap.
-I'm going tonight.
-
-==== Cursious? ====
-
-If you're curious, my room rent is $500 per month. Utilities,
- forniture and DSL Internet access are included.
-
-It's not cheap, but it's also not too expensive for Boston.
-They told me that only Manhattan is more expensive here on
-the east coast.
-
-==== CurriculumVitae ====
-
-...is almost ready. A friend told me that I'd better have
-also a synthetic resume of 1-2 pages for the impatient.
-I think he's right.
-
-Well, I said I'd be finished by last Monday, but then I
-managed to slip past my own deadline visiting NewYorkCity,
-moving in my current room and in other frivolous ways.
-
-Now I have no excuses: the time has come. Next Monday I
-''will'' write my proposal. Seriously.
-
-=== Fri, 4th ===
-
-==== Exchange Rates ====
-
-Looks like I'd better convert all my money to dollars *now*:
-
- http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph30.html
-
-What do you think about it?
-
-Babbo:penso che $ continuerà a svalutare. Perderai soldi.
-
-==== StataCenter ====
-
-I forgot to tell you about the kewlest building in EmAiTee:
-
- http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata12.jpg
-
-See also: http://www.eecs.mit.edu/stata-link.html
-
-==== Fast night ====
-
-After a long time, I finally get to (ab)use MIT's wi-fi and
-barf my short-term brain buffer into my BrainDump.
-
-Tonight we went to an Irish pub next to Kendall, where I got
-to know a few more Ximian employees. I got rumors that
-the famous kernel hacker RobertLove would be there, so after
-a while I turned to the guy next to me and asked: "Is
-RobertLove really going to come?". And he replied: "Speaking."
-
-Another guy told me: "Hi, I'm BAHB". "Pardon?". "BAHB!".
-"What???". Federico promptly helped me out: "Ha detto che si
-chiama BOB :-)"
-
-The beer was good. I discovered that a BlueMoon is the
-nearest approximation of a WeisseBeer I can find here,
-and I'm not at all displeased by its taste.
-
-==== Slow day ====
-
-My landlord has recently switched DSL provider and Internet
-doesn't work any more: the sync light on the modem flashes.
-It seems that crappy ISPs are a common disease in the States
-as well.
-
-Yesterday, he called for service and, finally, they told him
-they would send a tech today from 8AM to 18PM. They refused
-to be more specific. And so I've agreed to wait here to let
-the guy in... I care about it for myself too!
-
-==== Weight ====
-
-By the way, today I'm exactly 150 pounds (use GoogleCalculator
-to get it to SI units).
-
-150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
-
-=== Thu, 3rd ===
-
-==== Roxbury ====
-
-They told me Roxbury is quite an infamous suburb of Boston.
-And my first impression confirms that: shops are uglier,
-parks and streets are somewhat dirtier (but not as much as
-in NewYorkCity!) and, most importantly, some of the neighbors
-look creepy. Especially in the night, streets are crowded by
-people with criminal faces and many homeless.
-
-You know I'm not the type who's easily scared off by a bunch
-of zombies, but I'll feel much better when I'll drive a car.
-
-==== Moving In ====
-
-I've finally settled in my room. There's no need to describe the house
-in detail, as it's the most typical colonial design: two floors plus
-basement, front and back yards, sliding windows, wooden floors
-everywhere. You've come to know them very well from the movies.
-
-Today I went to the mall to gather the essentials: a blankets,
-a pillow case and some bath towels. The bed is comfortable and
-I was quite tired already, therefore I fell asleep early in the
-evening and kept on until 8 AM.
-
-'''WARNING: TIME WARP OCCURRED'''
-
------
-
-'''WARNING: TIME WARP IMMINENT'''
-
-=== Fri, 4th ===
-
-Alberto: Attento a convertire € in $ perchè € si sta apprezzando,e quindi $ svalutando rispetto a €.
-
-Belle le foto scovate da Massimo. Have a good stay in Btn.
-
-Massimo: Bernie, you taught me: http://www.google.com/search?q=100+USD+in+EUR
-
-
-Massimo: Since Bernie could not give us any picture, I had to use flickr: here they are!
-
-http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bernardo+innocenti
-
-Piro: what in the heaven is RMS doing dressed like a camp tent? :D
-
-=== Wed, 2nd ===
-
-==== BankOfAmerica ====
-
-I went to BankOfAmerica and opened a bank account. I went there wearing a yellow T-shirt
-and a weary pair of jeans. In the beginning, they referred me to a young guy who quickly
-tried to offer me a student's saving account. When I queried for interest rates, credit
-cards, and dollar/euro conversion rates, they finally realized that I was going to move
-a bit of money.
-
-When I've shown them my balance, they immediately switched me to a very polite girl who
-took all the time to explain me everything in detail until after their closing time and
-recommended me to open *3* different accounts to get a rate of 4.80% with no fees!
-I totally hate when people judge you by your wealth, dressing, or other stupid status
-symbols, but maybe a bank is the only exception where it makes sense to do so.
-
-Banking appears to be far, far simpler here. I already feel like I know
-everything while in Italy I still can't read most of the paperwork I get from
-my banks.
-
-Batt: Or maybe american bankers are so skilled that you are happy while, in truth, they have stolen your money forever :-P
-
-Massimo: Yahr yahr! He didn't realize they already got 4.80% of his balance from his pocket with a magician move! Yahr yahr! Anyway... 4-5% rate is not absurd in the US. It has always been almost like this as far as I can remember (maybe sometimes it was even 6-7%). It's useful for someone (like bernie), but tragic for someone who does not have any money and to buy a house with those mortgages it's almost impossible. Still, the US has got a very low rate in comparison with other extra-european countries.
-
-=== Tue, 1st ===
-
-==== Good News, Everyone! ====
-
-'''After a long struggling, I've finally found a room!'''
-
-And I'll be moving in *today*! But I'm writing on Thursday the 3rd, actually (aren't you thinking fourth-dimentionally yet?).
-
-The room is nice and comes with some forniture, including a desk. It's on the second floor
-of a house where the landlord lives with her wife and a very friendly puppy.I like it
-that way: all those houses shared by students I've seen so far tend to become unmaintained
-and dirty quite quickly, while this one is a real house with a fully operational kitchen,
-bathroom and even a clean back garden!
-
-My landlord is Armenian, but have been living here in Boston for a long time. My first
-impression is he's a very nice person, honest and easy going. I haven't met his wife yet --
-she'll be back on Sunday.
-
-I'm afraid the house is a bit far away from MIT, in southern Boston. But that won't
-be a problem as soon as I buy a car. There may even be a chance to rent or buy the
-car readily from my landlord's son.
-
-I don't know the address yet. I should, but I forgot the sheet on the table when I went there. And I can't call my landlord either because I've stolen his cell phone by mistake also. Yeah, I reckon I mustn't a good impression, actually :-)
-
-
-'''Camy''': the landlord lives with '''his''' wife
-
-==== Do You Speak English? ====
-
-Some of you will be pissed off by this change, but I'm starting to make
-some international friends here and none of them could read Italian.
-
-Writing in English is also what I need to improve my writing skills.
-For the few of you who barely know English, some more reading surely won't hurt!
-If you're real lazy,
-[[http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbender.codewiz.org%2Fwiki%2FMayBlog&langpair=en%7Cit=en Google Translator]]
-is your friend.
-
-As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
-
-''Massimo: ok, let's start with those horrible contractions my poor eyes had to read: '''Won't''' and '''I'd'''. Hey Bernie! You already went back home from NYC. Ain't gonna play with ya 'nymore!''
projects / wiki.git / blobdiff